[ltp] Q) Ultrabay2000 2nd HDD adapter Linux booting

[Heiko Rosemann]

Manho,

On Sun, 14 Dec 2003, Manho Kim wrote:
[snip]
> To do this, I first changed Default C drive with the spare drive.
> I installed Redhat 9.0 on spare drive.
> It works fine.(because there is only one OS on spare drive)
> After doing that, I inserted an original Hard drive to default bay.
> and spare drive in which Linux was installed  on Ultrabay2000 2nd HDD adapter.
>
> The default WinXP booting is OK.
> However, After I changed BIOS to boot from LINUX.. I mean.. Ultrabay2000 2nd HDD adapter.
> The linux kernel gives an error message.

I guess the kernel is not finding it's root filesystem. This is due to the
fact that the HDD you installed linux on was probably /dev/hda when
installing (in the default HDD bay) and now is something different (Probably
/dev/hdc) when it is installed in the Ultrabay2000.

To get around this, you need to boot some sort of rescue system (i.e.
knoppix), mount your root partition, change the bootloader configuration
(/etc/lilo.conf for lilo) to point to your current root partition and to the
correct MBR (boot=/dev/hdc, root=/dev/hdcX for lilo) rerun lilo with
lilo -r /mountpoint_of_rootpartition or find out how to reinstall grub.

Then you might still need to update your /etc/fstab, but AFAIK redhat uses
filesystem labels and not device files in /etc/fstab, so that shouldn't be a
problem.

> I'd like to know if anyone got success on this configuration.
> I know how to multi-boot using GRUB or LILO using different partition on one drive. I used that configuration for 2 years.

You can also multi-boot using at least lilo using different HDDs - no need to
switch the boot sequence in the bios. Simply leave boot=/dev/hda in
lilo.conf to install lilo to /dev/hda's MBR. It will still be able to boot
linux from /dev/hdc, but don't forget to add your WinXP partition to the
bootloader.

HTH, Heiko

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